Interview || The One With Mark Jansen From Epica

Who said musician life is easy? Sometimes
fan love can be dangerous. We caught up with Epica founder and guitarist, Mark Jansen, while on the Ultimate Principle tour, where he detailed how he escaped graphic fan encounters, lyrical inspiration and growing as a person. Special cameo appearance by drummer Arien van Weesenbeek.

U: Let’s start with the easy questions. You
guys released “The Solace System” only a year after “The Holographic
Principle”. We know the reasons behind it so we’re not gonna get into that. If
I’m not mistaken you will be heading to the studio next year. Did the release
of the EP between 2 full length give you more freedom to discard older
material, or did it add more pressure into creating something new in a shorter
timespan?

Mark Jansen: We aren’t going in the studio [with Epica]
for a while. Arien [van Weesenbeek, drums] and me are working on the new Mayan album at the moment.
It’s exciting because [we wrote] the first Mayan album at the same time as
Epica, so I couldn’t choose which parts to use for which band. But now, with the
new Mayan, we were 100% focused. We are ready and then, we will start working on
the new Epica record.

To answer the question, no; all the tracks
were recorded, mixed and mastered and we just had to figure out if we wanted to
release a double album or make [two separate releases]. Our manager preferred
the latter and that’s how it came to be. There wasn’t any pressure to release
this album, we just had to wait for a long time until we put it out. That was
the only disadvantage, the waiting time.

U: You also introduced Ouroboros as your new
symbol. What does the snake eating its tail symbolize to you?

M.J.: Everything is a circle. There’s multiple
interpretations but I see everything as a circle; whatever you do, you get back
to the beginning and, the more you learn, you move up a level. When you don’t
learn anything, you keep moving in circles on the same level. [ed –His description vaguely reminds me of
the Unalome symbol]. That’s how I see life as well. If you don’t learn from
your mistakes, you’ll keep falling back to your habits, but if you do, you can
advance.

U: Over time, Epica has touched on social
issues through your lyrics. Could you see the band becoming fully political?

M.J.: Maybe even less political. When we play
shows, people [come] to forget political issues so what we try to do is focus
more on the entertainment aspect. You know, I tried my best to express my views
to the crowd but [the response I got was that they] go to shows to forget their
problems and just be entertained, forget all the horrible things they go
through. In a way, it’s true, people want to have fun, so let’s focus more on
that and less on the political problems. Of course, there’s still political
issues in my lyrics but [considerably] less than in the past; now I focus more
on science, the universe, how life works and why we are here.

U: In the past, you have used Goethe’s quote,
that “none are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe that
they are free”, a quote that remains relevant even after 200 years from its
inception and can be interpreted in different ways. How do you interpret it?
What is freedom for you? And finally, do you think humanity will change its
ways?

M.J.: If you see it in a non-philosophical way,
I’d say you can never be totally free as a person, but obey to certain rules.
This is not necessarily a bad thing because rules set boundaries. That being
said, I think –in a more spiritual way- you can be free. We are occupied with
thoughts, which are a great tool to help you function in this world, but it can
also become a burden when your thoughts are taking over. More and more people
can’t fall asleep because of their thoughts controlling them –and therefore
they are far from being free. I think that’s the most important [facet] of
freedom; even if you are locked away in a prison and all your freedom has been
taken away from you, you can still find a new way of freedom, freedom of the
mind. That’s what monks and the Buddhists try to achieve, the nirvana. There,
there’s a lot of knowledge to gain –maybe gain is not the right word for humanity,
to really find out who we truly are. Only when you reach that point, and it’s
the highest you can achieve here on Earth, you can be truly free of thoughts.

U: If you could cast each member of the band
as a superhero, who would each member be? Arien, wanna help?

Arien Van Weesebeek: I would be Batman.

U: You have a butler, you have cool gadgets,
you have Robin…

A.v.W.: (laughs)

M.J.: Let’s see, who can Simone be?

A.v.W.: Wonder Woman! Isaac is Gandalf the Grey
(laughs)

M.J.: Coen?

A.v.W.: Coen is IronMan, Rob is Hellboy… And
you… Frodo?

M.J.: (laughs) Frodo Baggins! I should throw
the ring in the fire and die instead of keeping it too long! [Arien in the
back: “Don’t lose it!”]

U: What superpower does your music have?

M.J.: If it does, it would be people coming up
to me and saying that it changed or saved their lives. It’s always so hard to
grasp, how our music can be so important to someone; that’s probably its
superpower.

U: It is. How do you react when people say
those things?

M.J.: It’s a compliment but also it can be scary,
because what if we make a terrible album one day and [people say] “now it’s not
saving me but it’s even pushing me to the edge”? It’s great that our music can
be of great support to some people. I think that, if music can be of such help,
that’s one of the greatest goals you can ever reach.

U: It’s humbling. What is the weirdest thing
a fan has ever done?

[the guys look at each other knowingly]

M.J.: Yeah there was this one fan… (laughs)

A.v.W.: Not really to myself but I know of a fan
who gave as a gift, I think it was to you, Mark, pre-rolled marijuana joints…
He put them in [Mark’s] bag and then it started smelling. It turned out to be
marijuana and this was somewhere in Mexico, I think. [“Colombia”, Mark
corrects] Colombia. I think it would’ve been funny, if we had crossed the
border… that would’ve been a really funny story.

M.J.: I would probably still be in prison. To
this day, I remember it very precisely. We were going to fly to Argentina from
Colombia and I was searching my stuff to get a shirt or whatever, and it
smelled like weed. I thought ‘what the fuck?’ so I searched some more. I found
these coffee things that we were given by fans, but still I didn’t feel
comfortable, a voice in my head telling me to look more. I found this big,
thick letter I was going to read on the plane and, when I opened it, inside
there were five joints… He probably meant it well, but he would’ve screwed me big time… I didn’t even dare throwing
them in the bin in my room, I threw them at the lobby. At the airport, I was
telling the band, and we had this guitar tech, Willem, who was loving the
story. A drug dog came and was smelling my stuff and stayed. Willem was
laughing, and I was like ‘shut up!’. I
got pale on the face, and the [security] guy asked if we were carrying any fruits.
I said that I had some bananas in my suitcase but I had already eaten them, and
he said it was alright. That was apparently a fruit dog…

A.v.W.: Once, at a VIP session, we had a fan who
started singing.

M.J.: And it sounded terrible! It was a nice effort but it wasn’t really good. On this
tour a fan, who was also at the VIP session, was smelling really, really, really bad. We have to take a picture,
the fan probably doesn’t realize, and I don’t want to make them feel bad. The
show started and that fan was right in front of me. I could smell it! I thought
‘shit, I must be dreaming!’. My personal fan was also putting the smell in my
face and felt like puking. I’m not exaggerating, I felt so bad I started
forgetting lyrics and panicking, [thinking I should] ask the tour manager to
remove it. All these things were crossing my mind while all the other band
members were coming to my side [and were like] ‘whooa it smells really bad, I’m
outta here!’.

A.v.W.: This flow of stench came even at the
drums, in the back…

M.J.: It was a mixture of cheese, garlic,
rotten corpse and when you put wet clothes in a bag for a month and then open
it. [“Lovely scent!”, Arien exclaims while laughing] Combine these things and
put your head inside, then try to play a show!

U: I honestly regret asking… (laughs) You
receive €1000 for no reason. What do you spend it on?

M.J.: Where do I receive it? At home or when
I’m on tour?

U: At home, you’re checking your bank account
and you see it there. Or someone hands you an envelope, no questions asked.

A.v.W.: I would go on a holiday in a foreign
country!

M.J.: I would leave it there until I needed
it. I’m not the person to run to a store as soon as I have money. I’m now
building a house so I’d probably use it for that. The construction is almost
done so I’d use it for everything else. My girlfriend is always talking about
having a pool so maybe the €1000 could go there! (laughs)

U: If you could have a one-minute phone
conversation with a younger you, what age would you call and what would you
tell yourself?

A.v.W.: Interesting question.

U: Feel free to participate.

A.v.W.: Sixteen, maybe, and tell myself to grow
up (laughs) I would tell myself not to drink so much.

M.J.: I would call myself when I was 22 or 23,
when I was just kicked out of After Forever, and I would tell myself not to
worry and that everything was going to be alright.

U: What do you want the band’s legacy to be?

M.J.: It will be great if people listen to our
music after we are gone. People listening to us even now is enough for me.